The Client Experience Doesn’t End At The Point Of Purchase

 

Our Dazzling Blue program is centered on creating a client experience that separates and differentiates our clients in the face of a creeping sense of everything’s the same.  We are battling the commoditization of what we make, what we do, and how we solve our client’s needs.

 

When we start one of our Dazzling Blue projects for a client,  we always start at the beginning.  Where do the tendrils of what you do touch your client?  In order to be Dazzling, to be extraordinary, it has to encompass all that you do.  You can’t commit to Dazzling half way.

Here is one of my favorite examples of how NOT to be Dazzling.  Client touch points are critical in a Dazzling experience.  You need to know all of them and see each touch point as an element in the client experience.

I recently purchased a new charging cable for both my iPhone and my iPad.  It was positioned beautifully in a display case which positively impacted my buying choice.

Upon getting it home, I  went downstairs to the office to create a charging station for my gear.

So what could be the problem?  Hmmmm.  I tried to open it.

Now, I’m pretty smart and after a dozen attempts and a study period equaling getting ready for the SAT,  I couldn’t get the top off.  I obviously had the wrong tools, my hands.  I checked the packaging.  No opening directions.  I looked for some unique tool that came with this Chinese puzzle box.   Apparently, this chord is more valuable than the gold in Fort Knox, because I believe I could have accessed that shiny bullion easier than anyone could have accessed this damn charging cable!

Then I thought I needed something, a tool, and tried to pry it off with a screwdriver.

Nope, the lid would not budge despite my Archemidian attempt to use the screwdriver as a lever.

I was now 20-30 minutes into just trying to get the damn thing open, so I decided to change strategies and thought about the following tools.

 

 

I settled on the hammer and proceeded to beat the ever lovin daylights out of the plastic vault like container.  And . . . . .  I’ll be damned but, it opened and shattered into a hundred pieces.

I had my cord and, though I somewhat enjoyed the destructive process of opening the case,  I can’t believe that was the intended design.

Though the packaging was beautiful and its ability to stand out in a custom display case enticed me to buy, it is as far from a Dazzling Blue experience as a company can get.  Surely they tested the case?  Surely they gave it to some folks to open?  Surely they thought of the client, the customer, the end user, beyond the cool way it looked?  NOPE.

A Dazzling Blue experience wraps itself around the client.  It is found in the way you greet a client, in the way you deliver your product, in the way you handle problems.  You have to see the whole picture to separate yourself from the vanilla world and creating barriers is as far from Dazzling as you can get!